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1. The company truly values you. And I don’t just mean the Community Team. I know, it’s not always obvious, but from the President and CEO on down, there is not a single department here that doesn’t understand that without our community, our company has no mission, no purpose, no business model. And that appreciation is increasing. Executive meetings now literally start with our top two priorities - overall financials (like any company) and community updates (trust me - this isn’t normal) before we cover all the other areas.
2. Be kind to our employees. Look, a few of them annoyed me too sometimes, so I get it. But they’re all actual humans, and every one of em is working hard to try to make this community continue to grow, and scale, and evolve. So when a new PM proposes something you don’t agree with, tell them why you don’t, but remember that their primary motivation is almost definitely aligned with yours, and that they cared enough to come try to get your buy-in. Remember that a design you may righteously hate was probably painstakingly made by a designer with a good heart and a ton of talent, who simply wasn’t weighing some of the inputs you may be. And please don’t ever lose sight of how hard the Community Team works for you every day.
3. Keep an open mind to new ideas and new users. Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange are amazing. It’s not lost on me how many of the important decisions made early in our life are key to our community’s strength. But as we continue to grow and scale, we need to remember that some of what got us here is critical to keep, but some things will need to change and evolve to bring in the next generation, or to bring in folks we accidentally left out last go-around. Let’s not lose anyone who wants to help.
4. Don’t lose sight of what brought you here in the first place. Just today, I got a notice for a comment that said, “I joined this site just so I could give you a +1 for this.” It was just [a small lifehack I posted], but that notice reminded me of what first lit up inside me as a user on the Stack Exchange network. Like most of you all, I love the idea that I can contribute to something bigger than me. Something that can help others in need, in a way that’s much more effective scalable than the things that came before. That’s what brought many of you here. And you stayed because you felt like you were really helping, like you were making a difference. Because you were. And you are. Don’t let the debates, the arguments, the other stuff kill that joy. The helping is what matters. And you’re awesome at it.

1. The company truly values you. And I don’t just mean the Community Team. I know, it’s not always obvious, but from the President and CEO on down, there is not a single department here that doesn’t understand that without our community, our company has no mission, no purpose, no business model. And that appreciation is increasing. Executive meetings now literally start with our top two priorities - overall financials (like any company) and community updates (trust me - this isn’t normal) before we cover all the other areas.
2. Be kind to our employees. Look, a few of them annoyed me too sometimes, so I get it. But they’re all actual humans, and every one of em is working hard to try to make this community continue to grow, and scale, and evolve. So when a new PM proposes something you don’t agree with, tell them why you don’t, but remember that their primary motivation is almost definitely aligned with yours, and that they cared enough to come try to get your buy-in. Remember that a design you may righteously hate was probably painstakingly made by a designer with a good heart and a ton of talent, who simply wasn’t weighing some of the inputs you may be. And please don’t ever lose sight of how hard the Community Team works for you every day.
3. Keep an open mind to new ideas and new users. Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange are amazing. It’s not lost on me how many of the important decisions made early in our life are key to our community’s strength. But as we continue to grow and scale, we need to remember that some of what got us here is critical to keep, but some things will need to change and evolve to bring in the next generation, or to bring in folks we accidentally left out last go-around. Let’s not lose anyone who wants to help.
4. Don’t lose sight of what brought you here in the first place. Just today, I got a notice for a comment that said, “I joined this site just so I could give you a +1 for this.” It was just a small lifehack I posted, but that notice reminded me of what first lit up inside me as a user on the Stack Exchange network. Like most of you all, I love the idea that I can contribute to something bigger than me. Something that can help others in need, in a way that’s much more effective scalable than the things that came before. That’s what brought many of you here. And you stayed because you felt like you were really helping, like you were making a difference. Because you were. And you are. Don’t let the debates, the arguments, the other stuff kill that joy. The helping is what matters. And you’re awesome at it.

• My colleagues have been beyond amazing. There’s basically no one I’ve worked with regularly at Stack Overflow that I wouldn’t trust to watch to watch my kids. (And I like my kids.)
• My job was to try to help serve what might be the world’s most effective community of helpers. Let’s talk about that a little.

1. The company truly values you. And I don’t just mean the Community Team. I know, it’s not always obvious, but from the President and CEO on down, there is not a single department here that doesn’t understand that without our community, our company has no mission, no purpose, no business model. And that appreciation is increasing. Executive meetings now literally start with our top two priorities - overall financials (like any company) and community updates (trust me - this isn’t normal) before we cover all the other areas.
2. Be kind to our employees. Look, a few of them annoyed me too sometimes, so I get it. But they’re all actual humans, and every one of em is working hard to try to make this community continue to grow, and scale, and evolve. So when a new PM proposes something you don’t agree with, tell them why you don’t, but remember that their primarymotivation is almost definitely aligned with yours, and that they cared enough to come try to get your buy-in. Remember that a design you may righteously hate was probably painstakingly made by a designer with a good heart and a ton of talent, who simply wasn’t weighing some of the inputs you may be. And please don’t ever lose sight of how hard the Community Team works for you every day.
3. Keep an open mind to new ideas and new users. Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange are amazing. It’s not lost on me how many of the important decisions made early in our life are key to our community’s strength. But as we continue to grow and scale, we need to remember that some of what got us here is critical to keep, but some things will need to change and evolve to bring in the next generation, or to bring in folks we accidentally left out last go-around. Let’s not lose anyone who wants to help.
4. Don’t lose sight of what brought you here in the first place. Just today, I got a notice for a comment that said, “I joined this site just so I could give you a +1 for this.” It was just [a small lifehack I posted], but that notice reminded me of what first lit up inside me as a user on the Stack Exchange network. Like most of you all, I love the idea that I can contribute to something bigger than me. Something that can help others in need, in a way that’s much more effective scalable than the things that came before. That’s what brought many of you here. And you stayed because you felt like you were really helping, like you were making a difference. Because you were. And you are. Don’t let the debates, the arguments, the other stuff kill that joy. The helping is what matters. And you’re awesome at it.

• My colleagues have been beyond amazing. There’s basically no one I’ve worked with regularly at Stack Overflow that I wouldn’t trust to watch my kids. (And I like my kids.)
• My job was to try to help serve what might be the world’s most effective community of helpers. Let’s talk about that a little.

1. The company truly values you. And I don’t just mean the Community Team. I know, it’s not always obvious, but from the President and CEO on down, there is not a single department here that doesn’t understand that without our community, our company has no mission, no purpose, no business model. And that appreciation is increasing. Executive meetings now literally start with our top two priorities - overall financials (like any company) and community updates (trust me - this isn’t normal) before we cover all the other areas.
2. Be kind to our employees. Look, a few of them annoyed me too sometimes, so I get it. But they’re all actual humans, and every one of em is working hard to try to make this community continue to grow, and scale, and evolve. So when a new PM proposes something you don’t agree with, tell them why you don’t, but remember that their primary motivation is almost definitely aligned with yours, and that they cared enough to come try to get your buy-in. Remember that a design you may righteously hate was probably painstakingly made by a designer with a good heart and a ton of talent, who simply wasn’t weighing some of the inputs you may be. And please don’t ever lose sight of how hard the Community Team works for you every day.
3. Keep an open mind to new ideas and new users. Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange are amazing. It’s not lost on me how many of the important decisions made early in our life are key to our community’s strength. But as we continue to grow and scale, we need to remember that some of what got us here is critical to keep, but some things will need to change and evolve to bring in the next generation, or to bring in folks we accidentally left out last go-around. Let’s not lose anyone who wants to help.
4. Don’t lose sight of what brought you here in the first place. Just today, I got a notice for a comment that said, “I joined this site just so I could give you a +1 for this.” It was just [a small lifehack I posted], but that notice reminded me of what first lit up inside me as a user on the Stack Exchange network. Like most of you all, I love the idea that I can contribute to something bigger than me. Something that can help others in need, in a way that’s much more effective scalable than the things that came before. That’s what brought many of you here. And you stayed because you felt like you were really helping, like you were making a difference. Because you were. And you are. Don’t let the debates, the arguments, the other stuff kill that joy. The helping is what matters. And you’re awesome at it.

• My colleagues have been beyond amazing. There’s basically no one I’ve worked with regularly at Stack Overflow that I wouldn’t trust to watch my kids. (And I like my kids.)
• My job was to try to help serve what might be the world’s most effective community of helpers. Let’s talk about that a little.

I was deeply enamoured with the idea of this community - and what you all do here - well before I worked here. As a user, seeing how much energy and passion you all put into helping and teaching others just blew my mind. And that was before I even knew about the efforts y’all put into review queues, meta, and essentially pursuing a healthy, supportive system of self-government. And don’t even get me started on our Mods. I can’t say enough about them. Or any of you. You are amazing, and it was an amazing experience getting to try my best to support and serve you where I could. (I didn’t always succeed, but I never stopped trying.) And that brings me to a couple of things I want to leave you with:

1. The company truly values you. And I don’t just mean the Community Team. I know, it’s not always obvious, but from the President and CEO on down, there is not a single department here that doesn’t understand that without our community, our company has no mission, no purpose, no business model. And that appreciation is increasing. Executive meetings now literally start with our top two priorities - overall financials (like any company) and community updates (trust me - this isn’t normal) before we cover all the other areas.
2. Be kind to our employees. Look, a few of them annoyed me too sometimes, so I get it. But they’re all actual humans, and every one of them is working hard to try to make this community continue to grow, and scale, and evolve. So when a new PM proposes something you don’t agree with, tell them why you don’t, but remember that their primary motivation is almost definitely aligned with yours, and that they cared enough to come try to get your buy-in. Remember that a design you may righteously hate was probably painstakingly made by a designer with a good heart and a ton of talent, who simply wasn’t weighing some of the inputs you may be. And please don’t ever lose sight of how hard the Community Team works for you every day.
3. Keep an open mind to new ideas and new users. Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange are amazing. It’s not lost on me how many of the important decisions made early in our life are key to our community’s strength. But as we continue to grow and scale, we need to remember that some of what got us here is critical to keep, but some things will need to change and evolve to bring in the next generation, or to bring in folks we accidentally left out last go-around. Let’s not lose anyone who wants to help.
4. Don’t lose sight of what brought you here in the first place. Just today, I got a notice for a comment that said, “I joined this site just so I could give you a +1 for this.” It was just [a small lifehack I posted], but that notice reminded me of what first lit up inside me as a user on the Stack Exchange network. Like most of you all, I love the idea that I can contribute to something bigger than me. Something that can help others in need, in a way that’s much more effective scalable than the things that came before. That’s what brought many of you here. And you stayed because you felt like you were really helping, like you were making a difference. Because you were. And you are. Don’t let the debates, the arguments, the other stuff kill that joy. The helping is what matters. And you’re awesome at it.

I tried my best, where I could, to leave this place just a little bit better than when I found it. Where I failed at that, I think I mostly learned from it. And where I succeeded, it was in large part thanks to all of you, and all of your efforts to make this crazy experiment keep working. Keep teaching. Keep helping. Be kind to all my friends at the company. I’ll see you all on Meta.

• My colleagues have been beyond amazing. There’s basically no one I’ve worked with regularly at Stack Overflow that I wouldn’t trust to watch to watch my kids. (And I like my kids.)
• My job was to try to help serve what might be the world’s most effective community of helpers. Let’s talk about that a little.

I was deeply enamoured with the idea of this community - and what you all do here - well before I worked here. As a user, seeing how much energy and passion you all put into helping and teaching others just blew my mind. And that was before I even knew about the efforts y’all put into review queues, meta, and essentially pursuing a healthy, supportive system of self-government. And don’t even get me started on our Mods. I can’t say enough about them. Or any of you. You are amazing, and it was an amazing experience getting to try my best to support and serve you where I could.   (I didn’t always succeed, but I never stopped trying.) And that brings me to a coupla things I want to leave you with:

1. The company truly values you. And I don’t just mean the Community Team. I know, it’s not always obvious, but from the President and CEO on down, there is not a single department here that doesn’t understand that without our community, our company has no mission, no purpose, no business model. And that appreciation is increasing. Executive meetings now literally start with our top two priorities - overall financials (like any company) and community updates (trust me - this isn’t normal) before we cover all the other areas.
2. Be kind to our employees. Look, a few of them annoyed me too sometimes, so I get it. But they’re all actual humans, and every one of em is working hard to try to make this community continue to grow, and scale, and evolve. So when a new PM proposes something you don’t agree with, tell them why you don’t, but remember that their primarymotivation is almost definitely aligned with yours, and that they cared enough to come try to get your buy-in. Remember that a design you may righteously hate was probably painstakingly made by a designer with a good heart and a ton of talent, who simply wasn’t weighing some of the inputs you may be. And please don’t ever lose sight of how hard the Community Team works for you every day.
3. Keep an open mind to new ideas and new users. Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange are amazing. It’s not lost on me how many of the important decisions made early in our life are key to our community’s strength. But as we continue to grow and scale, we need to remember that some of what got us here is critical to keep, but some things will need to change and evolve to bring in the next generation, or to bring in folks we accidentally left out last go-around. Let’s not lose anyone who wants to help.
4. Don’t lose sight of what brought you here in the first place. Just today, I got a notice for a comment that said, “I joined this site just so I could give you a +1 for this.” It was just [a small lifehack I posted], but that notice reminded me of what first lit up inside me as a user on the Stack Exchange network. Like most of you all, I love the idea that I can contribute to something bigger than me. Something that can help others in need, in a way that’s much more effective scalable than the things that came before. That’s what brought many of you here. And you stayed because you felt like you were really helping, like you were making a difference. Because you were. And you are. Don’t let the debates, the arguments, the other stuff kill that joy. The helping is what matters. And you’re awesome at it.

I tried my best, where I could, to leave this place just a little bit better than when I found it. Where I failed at that, I think I mostly learned from it. And where I succeeded, it was in large part thanks to all of you, and all of your efforts to make this crazy experiment keep working. Keep teaching. Keep helping. Be kind to all my friends at the company. I’ll see you all on Meta.